Educational resource for effective communication about the impairing risks of prescribed pain medication while driving

The Traffic Injury Research Foundation USA, Inc. (TIRF USA), in partnership with TIRF in Canada, have received funding from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop and evaluate an educational resource. The purpose of the resource is to develop more effective communication tools to help prescribing health care professionals (HCPs) talk to patients about the impairing effects of prescribed pain medication and the risks associated with driving.

The TIRF organizations have also partnered with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to inform the development of this important resource that will benefit HCPs and the public alike. The research team will use TIRF’s established Knowledge Translation (KT) model to collect and synthesize focus group information and results will be used to inform the development of the resource. It will also be evaluated based on a comparison of HCPs and patients who are using the resource versus a control group of HCPs and patients who are not using it.